4 

Copy 2. 



NEW ENGLAND 

Old and U^(mi 




1620-1920 




^t HE first sawmill — ereSed near 
-*- Portsmouth about l6jl. Prob- 
ably New England' s first water-power 
development. 



New England 



Old and D^Cew 



y 



A Brief Review of some historical and 
industrial incidents in the Puritan "New 
English Canaan," still the Land of Promise 




Published by the Old Colony Trust Company 
of Boston, commemorating the Tercentenary 
of the First Landing at Plymouth in 1620 

<J)(Ccmxx 



Mmz, 



Copyright, 1920, by 
Old Colony Trust Company 



g;Gt.A566229 "' 
MAK 29 1920 




Foreword 



<c^ '^OD sifted a whole nation that he might send choice grain into 
m the wilderness," said William Stoughton in 1688. 

I ■ This grim old Puritan did not exaggerate. The founders 

^ ^ ^ of New England were not restless soldiers of fortune attracted 
by promises of plunder. They were not traders attraded by 
the prosped; of inordinate profits. They were not poor people seeking to 
improve their economic condition. They were drawn from the very best 
elemen-ts of the English nation — landed proprietors, yeomen, merchants, 
religious leaders — a large proportion university graduates, the progressives 
of their day who had the courage of their convidiions. 

They came to the savage wilderness to establish homes for themselves 
and their children, where they would be free from the cramping restric- 
tions on religious faith and forms of worship that had led many of them 
to leave England and seek sand:uary in the Netherlands. To establish 
a New England founded on their ideals of religious and civic rights, they 
braved the perils of the stormy Atlantic, the ferocious red men, the priva- 
tions and sufferings of pioneer life in a land whose soil is " not sterile unto 
death nor fruitful unto luxury" — a land which nevertheless appealed to 
t-hem as a New Canaan. 

The very names " Puritan " and " Pilgrim " summon a vision of stern 
men and brave women battling against Nature's relentless rigors through 
the cold winters, in daily peril from the savage denizens of the forest — 
industrious, God-fearing, independent, aggressive. 

This is the New England of history — the men and women whose 
figures stalk across the pages of American song and story like giants and 



saints — Bradford, Winthrop, Roger Williams, Priscilla Mullins, the 
brilliant Anne Hutchinson, the stout soldier Miles Standish ; and later, 
Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Israel Putnam, Daniel Webster, Ralph 
Waldo Emerson, James Russell Lowell — patriots, poets, statesmen. 

But New England, with her glorious traditions of a great past, does not 
rest on her laurels. Her people have made New England the Switzerland 
of America for skilled workmanship. Here, where the mechanic arts first 
took root in America, lives the greatest concentration of skillfiil, adapt- 
able labor in America. Arms and munitions manufactured during the 
Great War demonstrated this most vividly. 

And yet, after the roll of three centuries. New England is only partially 
• developed. In her water powers she possesses wonderful potentialities. 
At many points her rivers only wait the harness of dams to start the 
music of the turbines. 

For industries that require an abundance of cheap power, skilled crafts- 
men, cheap transportation to the world's markets, and a short haul to the 
greatest centers of population in America, New England is indeed the 
land of promise. 

Her chambers of commerce and other quasi-public institutions will 
gladly furnish definite information, advice, and assistance to enterprises 
seeking location in richly endowed, conservative, practical, aggressive 
New England. 

Glorying in her past, she presses forward to a still greater future. 




Chapter I 
Settlement 

THE historic voyage of the Mayflower in the fall 
of 1620 marks the beginning of a new era in 
social and political development. From Christ- 
mas Day, 1620, as recorded in Bradford's 
" History of Plymouth Plantation," — " and ye 
25 day begane to eredle ye first house for comone use to 
receive them and their goods," — dates the eifedtive history 
of New England. 

The Mayflower voyage appeals strongly to the imagina- The Mayficywer 
tion. A cockleshell of i 80 tons, crowded with a hundred 
pilgrims, it was tossed about like a cork on the wild Atlantic. 
Saved in mid-ocean by a big iron screw when a cracked 



lO 



New England — Old and New 



The First Winter 



The Indians 



timber threatened destrudion, the Mayflower was driven 
hundreds of miles out of its course. Instead of coming to 
land in Delaware, the snow-shrouded coast of New England 
was sighted on the ninth of November. 

In Provincetown harbor the battered Mayflower cast 
anchor. Here Dorothy Bradford met death by drowning, 
and Peregrine White, the first Pilgrim child, was born. 
Here the Mayflower compadl was signed. 

Five weary weeks were consumed in the search for a site 
suitable for founding the first town in the new English 
Canaan. The Mayflower s open shallop went exploring up 
and down the coast in the bitter cold. Finally the place 
that had been named Plymouth on Captain John Smith's 
map was sele6ted. 

Out of the hundred who landed, fifty-one succumbed to 
disease, exposure, and privation that first winter. At one 
time only Brewster, Miles Standish, and five others were 
well enough and strong enough to care for the sick and 
bury the dead. But there was no thought of surrender, 
Brewster spoke the truth when he said, "It is not with 
us as with men whom small things can discourage or 
small discontentments cause to wish themselves at home 
again." 

Work went on. By the end of the following summer we 
find a rude fortress topping the hill, twenty-six acres cleared 
and planted, and seven houses forming the village street, 
with others building. 

The settlement of Plymouth was effeded without any 
loss of life through Indian attack. Though the bow twanged 
and the blunderbuss barked on several occasions, no blood 




/'N 1646 the Boston shoemakers pe- 
titioned for a consolidation of their 
craft, that " all boots might be alike 
made well.'''' 



1 2 New England — OU and New 

was spilled. Good relations were established with the 
Indians towards the end of the first winter. 

The First Treaty Xhe first treaty was made with Massasoit, sachem of the 
Wampanoags, who inhabited the shores of Massachusetts 
Bay. He came accompanied by a score of befeathered 
braves. With Miles Standish and a few musketeers stand- 
ing quietly by, the pipe of peace was smoked and a treaty 
made that was faithfully kept on both sides for half a cen- 
tury. This quality of probity runs like a golden thread 
through New England's history. 

Canonicus, the sachem of the Narragansetts, however, 
threatened trouble. He sent a snake-skin filled with arrows. 
Governor Bradford's answer to this challenge was the snake- 
skin stuffed with gunpowder and bullets. Boldness won. 
Against the fifty English settlers, the Narragansett chief 
could have mustered two thousand warriors. The same 
spirit of indomitable courage came to the surface a century 
and a half later, when New England rose, almost like one 
man, to proted: the rights which a tyrant king and govern- 
ment threatened to extinguish. 

The Fortune During the fall of 1 62 1, the Fortune arrived with a wel- 

come reinforcement of fifty. However, as she was not very 
well provisioned, the daily ration was scanty during the 
second winter. 

First Export The Fortune carried back with her the first exports of 

the infant colony — some beaver skins and choice wood for 
wainscoting — worth about five hundred pounds sterling. 
This was to have been the first payment to the London 
" merchant adventurers " who financed the colony. But the 
Fortune fell in with a French cruiser and was robbed of 



New England — Old and New 



13 



Plymouth's 
Importance 



everything worth carrying away. This little cargo, of slight 
importance in itself, illustrates the sturdy integrity of the 
founders of New England, and their determination to be- 
come financially independent. In 1627 the colony bought 
up all the stock of the " merchant adventurers." Within 
seven years they had paid for it in full, through the fruits 
of their labor. 

The history of Plymouth is vital in its importance. The 
first settlers, and those like them who followed, had an 
incalculable influence in determining the civilization and 
the ideals that were to govern the building of the nation. 

But the colony itself was never large. Even in the early 
days its growth was slow. Ten years after settlement, 
Plymouth numbered but three hundred souls. In 1643, 
when the New England Confederacy was formed, the popu- 
lation of Plymouth was but three thousand. 

It is in the light of what came afterward that the found- '^^^ ^^*** 
ing of Plymouth assumes its importance as marking the "^'*^ ^ "^ 
beginning of a new era. The Plymouth pilgrims were but 
the advance guard of a mighty Puritan host that ten years 
later rolled over New England and planted settlements all 
along the New England coasts. 

The sailing of John Winthrop and his company, in 
April, 1630, led to the founding of Boston, Charlestown, 
Newtown, Watertown, Roxbury, and Dorchester. By 
Christmas of that year, seventeen ships had arrived, bring- 
ing over a thousand passengers. By 1640 not less than 
twenty-six thousand had made their homes in New Eng- 
land. For more than a century afterwards there was little 
emigration to this part of the country. 



14 



New England — Old and New 



Colonial 

New England's 

Racial Unity 



VitaKty of 
Inherited Ideals 



The historian John Fiske records that up to the time of 
the Revolution, no county in England was more thoroughly 
English than the New England colonies. On three occa- 
sions only was there any considerable infusion of non- 
English stock. In 1652, after his viftories at Dunbar and 
Worcester, Cromwell sent 270 of his Scottish prisoners to 
Boston. After the revocation of the Edidl of Nantes in 
1685, 150 families of Huguenots came to Massachusetts. 
In 1 719, 120 Presbyterian families came over from the 
north of Ireland and settled at Londonderry, New Hamp- 
shire. Weeden reports the arrival at Newport, Conne6ticut, 
of sixteen Hebrew families from Holland in 1658. 

While modern New England no longer possesses the 
racial unity of colonial days, the ideals of her Puritan 
founders still dominate. A recent occurrence in Massachu- 
setts demonstrated their vitality, when civil and property 
rights were menaced. The instant response of her citizens, 
of all racial antecedents, was a striking revelation of the 
devotion of present-day New England to those principles 
of law and order which the early settlers reverenced. 




Chapter II 
Qolonial T)ays 



NEW ENGLAND was a land of towns. Big 
plantations and extensive holdings were the 
exception. Agriculture, fishing, and trading 
were the principal occupations. For years it 
was forbidden to build a house more than two 
miles from the meetinghouse. 

This centralization served several purposes. Besides 
keeping the population compa6t and in good posture for 
defense against the Indians, it made easier the enforcement 
of the strid laws on church attendance. Public order was 
more readily maintained. Community spirit developed 
that found ready expression and definite diredion. 



Effe^s of 
New England 
Town Life 



i6 



New England — Old and New 



Colonial 
Industries 



Boston Boot- 
makers' Petition 



First American 
Iron Foundry 



New England never drifted. She always stood up for 
her rights, and resisted outside interference in colonial 
affairs, whether of government or trade. 

Hardly had houses been built and a few fields ploughed 
and planted before manufad:ure and trade began. Thirty 
years after Plymouth was settled we find a wide variety of 
manufactures prospering in the infant colonies — sawmills, 
gristmills, glassworks, ropewalks, iron foundries, textile 
mills, gun shops, shipyards, tanneries, brickyards. Cattle 
and sheep were pastured under the care of a cow-keeper 
or herdsman in Boston, Cambridge, Salem, Dorchester, 
Windsor, Connedlicut, and other towns. Corn, pork, fish, 
and lumber were exported. 

The bootmakers of Boston in 1646 complained to the 
General Court of " much bad work produced by their craft," 
and petitioned for permission to join themselves into one 
large company, so that " all boots might be alike made well." 
In this attitude of the Boston bootmakers we find an ex- 
planation and a reason for New England's supremacy in 
many lines of manufadhire to this day — good work and 
pride in it. 

To the initiative of John Winthrop, Jr., and the skill of 
Joseph Jenks, belongs the credit of establishing the first 
iron foundry and machine shop in the western world. It 
began operation at Lynn in 1643. Tradition says that the 
first successful casting was a quart iron pot. The iron de- 
posits of the Saugus bog furnished the ore. In 1645 J^^n 
Winthrop, Jr., reports its successful operation. " Their 
furnace runs 8 tons per week and their bar iron is as good 
as Spanish." 



New England — Old and New 



17 



Joseph Jenks was a man of unusual skill and intelligence. 
In 1646 he petitioned and the Court granted him a patent 
for fourteen years "to build a mill for the making of 
scythes, and also a new invented saw mill and divers other 
engines for making of divers sorts of edge tools, whereby 
the country may have such necessaries in short time at far 
cheaper rates than now they can." 

These scythes were a great improvement over the type 
then in general use. They were much lighter and narrower 

— the type that superseded all others for use in America 
until another American revolutionized harvesting by the 
invention of the mowing machine. 

In this first New England foundry and machine shop 
we find the true quality of craftsmanship — brains plus 
skill and care — that has made New England the finishing 
shop of the nation, whence come tools of precision, fine 
silverware, improved machinery, watches, phonographs, and 
a host of similar produdls. 

Colonial production of textiles — wool, linen, and cotton 

— was the objeft of several orders of the General Court 
during 1640. Towns were dire6led to ascertain what seed 
was necessary for the growing of flax, who among the in- 
habitants were skilled in braking, operating spinning wheels, 
and in weaving. Boys and girls were to be taught spinning. 
A bounty of threepence in the shilling was provided for 
wool and linen cloth produced from colony-grown materials. 
Boston increased the number of sheep that might be grazed 
in place of one cow from four to five. 

But the real beginning of New England's textile indus- 
try — mill manufa(5hire — dates from 1643. I" ^^^^ 7^^^ 



Brains Plus 
Skill and Care 



Bounty on 
Spinning and 
Weaving 



New England — Old and New 



a fulling mill was imported from England, and at Rowley, 
where twenty or more families trained in the cloth manu- 
facture of Yorkshire had settled, the machinery was set up 
and put in operation. It marks the inception of an industry 
in which New England leads the nation. Not only in 
volume and quality of produd; does New England excel, 
but also in the manufacture of improved textile machinery. 

First Sawmills in In England and Holland sawmills were not regularly 

ew ng an operated until about a hundred years after the first American 

sawmill was started at Piscataqua (near Portsmouth) in 163 1. 
In Europe, during this time, the sawyers and laborers suc- 
cessfully fought the adoption of power on the ground that 
it would deprive many of them of a livelihood. 

This pioneer among American sawmills employed thirty 
people. It was, perhaps, the first industrial use of New 
England's unrivaled water powers. 

Grants for sawmills usually provided that the town should 
have a certain proportion of the total as rental or royalty. 
On such other supply as was required, the town enjoyed 
a preferred price. Gloucester, in 1650, obliged the grantee 
to sell boards to the inhabitants at one shilling per hundred 
— " better cheap than to strangers." Other towns provided 
that their inhabitants should have preference over strangers 
in the matter of work at the mills ; and supplies must be 
bought from the townsmen. No timber was to be cut 
within three miles of the meetinghouse, etc. 

Shipbuilding Abundance of cheap timber, " fit for shipping, planckes, 

ippmg ^^ knees," etc., and skilled shipbuilders made New Eng- 

land a big fa6tor in shipbuilding and commerce early in 
her history. New England could build ships at a cost per 



r 




1 



TT/^E whose Names are underwrit- 
yy ten. . . Having undertaken. . . to 
plant the first Colony in the Northern 
parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents 
solemnly and mutually, in the presence 
of God and one another. Covenant and 
Combine our selves together into a Civil 
Body Politick for our better ordering 
and preservation . . ." 

From the '^Mayjiower Compact." 



New England — Old and New 



21 



ton that was twenty-five dollars below the European price. 
Ships soon became a principal New England export. 

Fish and lumber formed the keystone of early New 
England commerce and wealth. In 1641 New England 
exported 300,000 dried fish to the West Indies and to 
the Catholic countries of Europe. During this year eleven 
vessels sailed to the West Indies loaded with lumber and 
pipe-staves, bringing back sugar, indigo, and other tropical 
products. 

Year by year this trade grew and the number of vessels 
increased. At first trade was carried on largely by Dutch 
ships; but after 1651 it was legally open only to colonial 
ships and English, Scotch, or Irish vessels. A later law 
forbade commerce with any but English possessions. 

The growth of New England ships and shipping can be 
judged by the statistics of ships around Boston as given 
by Governor Hutchinson in 1676 — thirty vessels between 
100 and 200 tons, two hundred between 50 and 100 tons, 
and five hundred smaller ships. By the middle of the 
eighteenth century Boston had become one of the world's 
busiest ports, with about a thousand arrivals and departures 
of ships in foreign trade annually, and a big coastwise ton- 
nage and commerce. In 1770 Massachusetts alone con- 
structed half of all the vessels built in America. 

New England mastery in shipping and trade is of long 
standing. During the " golden age " of American shipping, 
from the Revolution to the decline of the clipper ships in 
i860, New England led the world. In the new era of 
American shipping — of motor ships, of coal- and oil- 
burning steamers — New England, with her magnificent 



Early Commerce 
in Fish and 
Lumber 



Foreign Ships 



New England 
Vessels 



11 



New England — Old and New 



Beginning of 

Popular 

Education 



Colonial Money 



harbors and modern facilities, is doing a bigger, more profit- 
able business than in the palmiest days of her clipper ships. 
She is adively competing for a larger share in modern 
commerce that her geographical situation, industrial ex- 
pansion, and terminal facilities enable her to handle. 

The life of colonial New England was many sided. 
While she was building up her commerce and manufadtures 
she was also planting new milestones along the road of, 
progress. 

In 1647 Massachusetts passed a law requiring each town 
of fifty householders to " appoint one within their town to 
teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and 
read." 

Eleven years before, the General Court had appropriated 
four hundred pounds towards the establishment of a college 
at Newtown. It is said of this assembly that it was " the 
first body in which the people gave their own money to 
found a place of education." Two years later, in 1638, 
John Harvard, dying childless, bequeathed his hbrary and 
half of his estate to the college. Here we see the establish- 
ment of the distinftly American system of the " little red 
schoolhouse," and of higher education stimulated by the 
use of the public's money. 

Money in the modern sense was never plentiful in colo- 
nial New England. The native American money, wampum, 
was legal tender until 1661. It remained current in small 
transactions till late in the eighteenth century. Its value 
ranged from five shillings to twenty shillings a fathom. 
Much of the early income of Harvard College came from 
the ferry privilege between Boston and Charlestown which 




/N 1642, the first iron works were 
put in operation — near Lynn, Mass- 
achusetts. Tradition says an iron quart 
pot was the first casting. 



-w ) .umiJi 



FbWIW^MTT' '■' 



J J ' ,'---4- •■.»^< .V '!»-.• f- 



T***rf^!^ vrmsgik 



24 



New England — Old and New 



Coins in 
Circulation 



Legal 
Punishments 



the General Court granted to Harvard College in 1640. 
Shortly afterward, we find the ferrymen complaining of loss 
from passengers who paid in " peag " (a common name for 
wampum) that was in such bad condition that they lost two- 
pence in the shilling. 

Metal coins of English, French, Dutch, and Spanish 
origin circulated in New England. There were ninepences, 
fourpence-ha'pennies, bits and half-bits, pistareens, pica- 
yunes and ftps, doubloons, moidores, and pistoles, English 
and French guineas, carolins, ducats, and chequins. 

But there was not enough currency to keep pace with re- 
quirements for domestic and foreign trade. In 1652 Massa- 
chusetts ereded " a mint for coining shillings, sixpences, 
and three pences." The most famous of these coins was 
the " pinetree shilling." From making these coins the 
mint master piled up such a fortune that he gave his 
daughter her weight in silver shillings as a dowry. 

The ducking stool, stocks, bilboes, whipping post, and 
gallows faced wrongdoers throughout New England's colo- 
nial history. Scolding wives and quarrelsome wives and 
husbands were the most frequent occupants of the ducking 
stool. A few dips in cold water were reported as extremely 
efficacious in remedying conjugal infelicity. Intoxication, 
more than any other misdemeanor, brought people into the 
stocks. This penalty was not entirely abandoned till early 
in the nineteenth century. The bilboes consisted of a 
strong iron bar parallel to the ground and supported at 
a height of a yard or less. To this bar were fastened 
shackles. The culprit lay on his back, with his ankles 
securely shackled to this bar, while undergoing punish- 



New England — Old and New 25 

ment. The whipping post was used for many offenses 
which now seem trivial in comparison to the penalty. 
Sleeping during the sermon occasioned the use of the 
whipping post in at least one recorded case. Among the 
famous New England hangings were those of six pirates 
who made a gruesome spe(5lacle for Boston's citizens on 
Friday, June 30, 1704. It is recorded that the pirate cap- 
tain, John Quelch, stepped forward and, taking his hat off, 
made a short speech before his execution, warning the 
spediators to have a care " how they brought money into 
New England, to be hanged for it." 

On the statute books there were fifteen capital crimes, in- 
cluding blasphemy, witchcraft, idolatry, marriage within the 
Levitical degrees, " presumptuous sabbath breaking," and 
cursing or smiting one's parents. The court had a wide 
discretion, however, and hanging was rarely inflided except 
in cases of murder or other serious crime. 

To the end of the seventeenth century witchcraft was a witchcraft 
statutory offense throughout the civilized world. Execu- ^ tatutory 

. ° , . Offense 

tions for witchcraft occurred in England as late as 171 2, in 
Scotland in 1722, and in Germany the year Goethe was 
born, 1749. Martin del Rio reports that in the year 151 5 
not less than five hundred witches were executed in the 
single city of Geneva. In Scotland from 1560 to 1600, 
the average annual number of vi6tims was two hundred. 
During the first sixty years in New England's history 
about a dozen cases of witchcraft were prosecuted. 

The outbreak of hysterical fear of witches, which resulted 
in the execution of nineteen people in Salem in 1692, has 
held a position of undeserved prominence in American 



26 New England — Old a?id New 

history. It ended witchcraft in America for all time — dec- 
ades earlier than in the most advanced countries of Europe. 

Sanity and Enlightened progress is written large on every page of 

rogress Ncw England's history. A spirit of sanity and humani- 

tarianism early led New England to abolish human slavery. 
Massachusetts, by her constitution of 1790, became the 
first free state. She fought hard to end slavery in the nation. 
In 1784 Rhode Island enfranchised Roman Catholics. 
Maine was three-quarters of a century in advance of the 
nation in adopting prohibition. She was one of the first 
states to abolish the penalty of capital punishment for crime. 
In the protection of children, too. New England has made 
a proud record by the enadtment of model child labor laws. 

^^s's °^ In the fadories of New England were first developed 

^^ "^ ^^ the machinery and the efficient organization of effort which 

laid the foundations for America's industrial supremacy. 
In every department of intelledual, social, and industrial 
activity New England has been ever in the forefront. She 
has fulfilled the promise which her adlivities during colonial 
days prophesied. 




Chapter III 
Independence 

FROM the signing of the Mayflower Compad to 
the day, a hundred and fifty years later, when the 
battle of Lexington opened the Revolution, New 
England never willingly, or with good grace, ac- 
knowledged the jurisdiction of king or parliament 
in American affairs. 

To be sure, the treaty with " King " Massasoit was made 
in the name of King James ; but no royal official had any- 
thing to do with it. Likewise, neither King James nor the 
English parliament did anything to assist in founding New 
England. Not until late in the seventeenth century did the 
colonists consent to administer justice in the king's name. 



King's 

Authority 

Flouted 



New England — Old and New 



The New England Confederation of 1643 ^^^ formed 
as between sovereign states. No permission was asked. 

Coins were minted which bore neither the name nor the 
Hkeness of the English king. They were authorized and 
circulated without his consent or permission. When the 
king showed anger at the lack of any recognition of royal 
authority on these coins, a quick-witted friend of New 
England mollified the vain monarch by explaining that the 
pine tree was the royal oak in which a Stuart king had 
once hidden. 

Indian Wars The wars with the Indians were fought and won at New 

England's expense — of blood and money. The first war 
with the murderous Pequots, in 1637, was won in an hour's 
battle. Seventy-seven colonists from Connedicut, Plym- 
outh, and Massachusetts attacked the palisaded fort of the 
savages near Stonington, Connedlicut. Out of more than 
seven hundred red men, it is said but five escaped. The 
thoroughness of this victory proved a salutary objed: lesson. 
It stilled the war whoop for forty years. 

King Philip's From 1675 t° ^67^ N^w England fought for her life, 

ar, I 75-1 7 Xhis was the period of the terrible King Philip's War. 
During its course twelve New England towns were utterly 
destroyed. Forty out of ninety towns were the scene of 
fire and slaughter. Over a thousand staunch men lost their 
lives, and scores of gentle women and helpless children 
perished. 

But it saw the end of Indian power in New England. 
When it ended, most of the warriors were dead. Hence- 
forth, the Indians figured no more in New England history, 
except as allies of the French in bloody frontier raids. 




^ 



/^iV a chill December day, 1620, 
^^ the Pilgrims landed on the snow- 
clad shore of New England; and, ac- 
cording to Governor Bradford's account, 
"Te 2^ day begane to ere£le ye first 
house for comone use to receive them 
and their goods. " // marked the dawn 
of a new era. 



\ 



New England — Old and New 



31 



Eliminating 
a Fighting 
Frontier 



The end of this war found Plymouth Colony with a debt 
greater than the value of all the personal property in the 
colony. The same was true of Massachusetts and Connedti- 
cut. Pradically every family was in mourning. Payment 
in full meant years of unremitting toil, thrift, and self- 
denial. But the New England tradition was maintained. 
Every penny was finally paid. 

To proted: themselves against French encroachment was 
the objed: of the expedition in 1745 against Louisburg, the 
French Gibraltar, on whose fortifications over ten million 
dollars had been expended. This extraordinary enterprise 
was urged and organized by Governor Shirley, of Massa- 
chusetts. New England raised and officered the army. Not 
an English redcoat was present, though English naval forces 
cooperated efficiently in the later stages of the siege and 
contributed to its successful conclusion. In recognition of 
this vidory, the commander. Colonel William Pepperell, 
of Kittery, Maine, was made baronet — the only colonial 
American who ever received that honor, says John Fiske. 

This, and the capture of Quebec, in which the southern 
colonists assisted, meant to New England the elimination 
of a fighting frontier. For this purpose they gladly served 
side by side with the redcoats, who constituted about half 
of Wolfe's force at the siege of Quebec in 1759. 

With the exception of these military enterprises, the 
record of New England resistance to English authority 
runs through every page of colonial history. 

The Navigation Ad of 1651 aroused bitter opposition Navigation Afts 
not only in New England, but in all the colonies. It was 
the application of protedion and worked severe hardships. 



32 



New England — Old and New 



Seeds of the 
Revolution 



Why the Stamp 
A61 Was Passed 



By limiting the countries the colonies could trade with and 
the nationality of the ships by which the trade could be 
condudled, this law enabled the buyer of colonial produce 
to set the price. 

By shutting out foreign competition it gave the English, 
Scotch, and Irish merchants a monopoly of the market. 
They could regulate the price at which goods were sold 
to the colonists. The result was low prices for colonial 
products and high prices for imported goods. 

In addition, a later law forbade any trade between the 
colonies and foreign countries or possessions. This restric- 
tive law, which aimed to give English ships monopoly in 
English trade, was not abolished till 1849. 

The Navigation Ads, annulling the charter of Massa- 
chusetts in 1648, the tyrannous rule and final overthrow of 
Sir Edmund Andros as Viceroy of New England, in 1689, 
the eredlion of Massachusetts into a royal province which 
included Plymouth, Maine, and Arcadia, the Stamp Ad, 
the import duties — these were the seeds of the Revolution. 

Inasmuch as the war with the French in America had 
been largely beneficial to the colonies — their war. In fad: 
— both parliament and the king decided that the colonies 
should be taxed to support the army of ten thousand men 
which the enlarged dominions required. 

They would have preferred that the colonies lay the 
necessary taxes; but there was no general assembly of the 
colonies with which the home government could treat. 
Besides this, experience had shown that each colony was 
always unwilling to make a grant for the common service 
of the colonists as a whole. 




TJ/TIIRR, whirr, whirr " sang the 
r y old colonial spinning wheels — 
humble predecessors of the great power 
looms of present-day New England. 



34 New England — Old afid New 

It was accordingly thought that the only authority to 
which all the colonies would bow was that of the British 
parliament. In 1765, therefore, parliament passed a Stamp 
Ad: which was calculated to raise about a hundred thousand 
pounds. The stamped papers were to be used for all legal 
documents. 

The colonists refused to accept the stamped papers and 
attacked the officers whose duty it was to distribute them. 
In 1766 this ad; was repealed; but the repeal was accom- 
panied by a Declaratory A6t which asserted the right of 
the British parliament to tax the colonies, as well as to 
legislate for them. 
Import Duties Xhe following year an a6l of parliament levied duties on 

glass, red and white lead, painters' colors, paper, and tea. 
New England's answer was a general refusal to use these 
articles, and refusal to convid colonists accused of ads of 
violence against the revenue officers. 

In these ads of resistance they were upholding the 
Englishman's ancient right to a voice in all matters of 
taxation. The denial of this right stood as the principal 
and dired cause of the Revolution — taxation without 
representation. 
Duty on Tea The violent opposition to these ads left the British 

government tvvo alternatives — treating with the Americans 
as a virtually independent people, or compelling obedience 
by military force. A halfway method was sought. In 1770 
all duties were repealed, except that of threepence a pound 
on tea. This duty was retained, not for the revenue it 
would affiDrd, but simply to assert the right of England to 
tax the colonies — a challenge and an irritant. 



Retained 




f^OFERNOR Bradford answered 
v-J' the threat of the savage Canon- 
icus, a snake-skin filled with arrows, by 
returning the same snake-skin stuffed 
with gunpowder and bullets. He de- 
fined New England^ s attitude towards 
disturbers of the peace — fearless, un- 
compromising maintenance of law and 
order. 



New England — Old and New 



37 



Sullen resistance and defiance to English rule continued. Boston Massacre 
In 1770 a street riot broke out in King Street [now State 
Street], Boston, in the course of which the soldiers fired 
on a threatening mob, killing four people. This is known 
as the " Boston Massacre." It caused tremendous excite- 
ment and extreme exasperation. 

Samuel Adams, as spokesman for the townspeople, de- 
manded the immediate removal of all the soldiers. The 
governor wisely decided to acquiesce. These regiments at 
once became known as " Sam Adams' regiments." 

The entire loss of the support of public opinion ren- The Gaspee 
dered government less effed:ive. Lawlessness ran riot. 
Revenue officers were tarred and feathered and otherwise 
outraged with impunity. In 1772 a small vessel of war, 
the Gaspee, was captured and burnt. 

The following year when a number of ships loaded with "Boston Tea 
tea arrived in Boston harbor, the inhabitants met and re- P^rty" 
quested the governor to have them sent away. He refused. 
A few days later, a number of young men disguised as 
Indians boarded the ships and, breaking the chests open 
with tomahawks, threw all the tea into the harbor. 

England regarded these afts as practical anarchy so far 
as English law was concerned. Burke's advice, " revert to 
your old principles — leave America, if she have taxable 
matter in her, to tax herself," was disregarded. Force was 
decreed. 

In 1774 parliament passed the Boston Port Ad. It Repressive Aas 
prohibited the landing or shipping of goods at Boston. 
Parliament then passed the Massachusetts Government A61 
which transferred the appointment of the Council, or upper 



38 



New England — Old and New 



The Continental 
Congress 



Minute Men 



Lexington 
and Concord 



Conciliatory 
OfFer 



house, together with that of all judges and administrative 
officers from a popular eledtorate to the Crown. Another 
a6t forbade public meetings without the leave of the gov- 
ernor. A soldier, General Gage, was appointed governor. 

These measures roused all the colonies. What was being 
done in New England might later be done elsewhere. A 
congress, attended by deputies from all the colonies but 
Georgia, met at Philadelphia under the name of the Con- 
tinental Congress. This congress declared for the stoppage 
of all export and import trade with England till such 
time as the grievances should be redressed. The adlive 
spirits were fully determined to resist unless concessions 
were made. 

In New England extensive preparations for resistance 
were made. Officers were seledled and " minute men " — 
who offered to fly to arms at a minute's notice — were en- 
rolled in large numbers. 

Most of the colonists thought that by a strong demon- 
stration of preparedness and determination to resist coercion 
they would be able to secure the repeal of the obnoxious 
laws. England was blind to American power of resistance. 

Hostilities opened without any official declaration of war, 
and quite unexpededly. A small British force went from 
Boston to seize some arms at Concord. At Lexington it 
had a skirmish with a few American volunteers who were 
driven off. This occurred on April i8, 1775. On its return 
the following day the hedges and walls were lined with 
riflemen, who inflided heavy loss on the retreating column. 

Blood had been spilled. Conciliation became more 
difficult. On June 17 came the battle of Bunker Hill. An 



of Boston 



New England — Old ayid New 2,9 

offer to abandon the right of the British parHament to tax 
any colony which would provide for its own defense and 
civil government had been dispatched in March. It did 
not arrive till after the affair at Lexington, and was sum- 
marily rejeded. The Revolution was under way. 

Nothing less than independence, full and complete — 
political, social, and economic — would now satisfy New 
England. 

On March i6, 1776, the British evacuated Boston. The Evacuation 
city of John Winthrop and the English Puritans had 
passed forever from British control, almost four months 
before the Declaration of Independence was signed by the 
Continental Congress. 

From this time until the end of the Revolution, New 
England's fighting was principally naval. The story of it 
quickens the pulse of every true American — the cruise of 
the Bon Homme Richard and her victory over the Serapis, 
the gallant fight of the Chesapeake., and Lawrence's dying 
words : " Don't give up the ship." Not all were New 
England built ships, but most of the men who manned 
them were bred in New England. 




Chapter IV 
zAfter the T^volution 

Prophecy "W ^^^URING the pcacc conference at Paris in 1783, 

I ^ which brought to an end England's wars with 

I ■ France, Spain, Holland, and her American 

B ^^r colonies, the Spanish representative. Count 
Aranda, wrote this prophetic memorandum : 
" The federal republic is born a pygmy. A day will come 
when it will be a giant, even a colossus . . . liberty of con- 
science, the'facihty for establishing a new population on im- 
mense lands, as well as the advantages of the new govern- 
ment, will draw thither farmers and artisans of all the nations." 
True in the light of history, it is also true that the 
poverty and feebleness of the general government menaced 



New England — Old and New 



41 



the permanence of a united nation. Until the ratification 
of the Federal Constitution — " the finest specimen of con- 
strudlive statesmanship the world has ever seen" — fridlion 
between the states and unwillingness to grant congress 
efFedlive authority threatened to result in the establishment 
of thirteen squabbling repubhcs. 

John Adams, John Jay, and Benjamin Franklin secured 
the inclusion in the treaty, as finally signed on September 
3, 1783, of pradically every condition for which they con- 
tended. Independence, territory, frontiers, rights to fish- 
ing on the Banks of Newfoundland, without reciprocal 
rights to British vessels along the coast of the United 
States, disposition of loyalist claims, the validity of private 
debts contraded previous to the war — all were settled 
along lines acceptable to the United States. 

Justice requires the statement that pressure was put 
upon the delegates to compromise these private debts. 
But John A.dams declared that he " had no notion of 
cheating anybody." The treaty provided that all private 
debts, whether incurred before or after 1775, must be dis- 
charged at their fiill value in sterling money. 

The years from 1783 to 1789 have been well termed the 
" critical period of American history." The colonies that 
fought shoulder-to-shoulder through the war grew suspi- 
cious and jealous of each other. The southern colonies 
feared that if they agreed to exclude foreign ships from 
their carrying trade, the shipowners of New England 
would use their monopoly to the disadvantage of the rice 
and tobacco growers. Each state enadied laws governing 
intercourse with foreign countries and between the states. 



Some Treaty- 
Provisions 



When 
Chaos Ruled 



42 



New England — Old and New 



Interstate 

Commercial 

War 



Money Troubles 



New York laid a double duty on all goods imported 
in British ships. Pennsylvania passed the first American 
tariff aft for the benefit of a few manufadiurers. Massa- 
chusetts attempted to establish committees of correspond- 
ence for the purpose of inaugurating a new non-importation 
agreement. She forbade exports in British ships and placed 
a quadruple duty on all goods they brought in. 

The states made commercial war on each other. Con- 
necticut opened her ports to foreign shipping and laid 
duties on imports from Massachusetts. Pennsylvania dis- 
criminated against Delaware. New York imposed duties 
on all imports from Connecticut and New Jersey — even 
loads of firewood, fresh vegetables, and dairy produdls. 
Rowboats from these colonies had to be entered and 
cleared through the customhouse, just the same as Lon- 
don ships. Retaliatory measures quickly followed, which 
fanned the flames of interstate dislike and enmity. 

The financial situation was desperate. Both private and 
public debts were enormous and there was little currency. 
Manufactured goods had to be imported. Payment was 
exacted in money acceptable to the importers. The farmers 
cried out against the merchants as extortioners who drained 
the country of specie. They demanded that paper money be 
issued, and by legal enadiment forced to circulate at face value. 

In Rhode Island this scheme received a full trial, with 
these results: The merchants shut up their shops. The 
farmers threw their milk away, used their corn for fuel, and 
let their apples rot. The merchants threatened to move 
away. Finally, as a result of a test case, this forcing a(5t 
was declared unconstitutional. It was soon repealed. 




r'HE first hand paper mill at Mil- 
ton, in 1717, established this in- 
dustry in New England — whence comes 
most of our fine modern writing paper. 



44 



New England — Old and New 



In Massachusetts 



Shays' s Rebellion 



Massachusetts defeated the rag-money advocates, but not 
before she had faced and subdued armed insurreftion. 

In 1788 Bristol County petitioned for an issue of paper 
money. The Massachusetts legislature refused by a vote 
of 99 to 19. A bill to reestablish barter, with horses and 
cows as legal tender, met a similar fate. The legislature 
did, however, pass a bill to strengthen the federal govern- 
ment by a grant of funds to congress. 

This adlion aroused violent opposition. A convention 
met at Hatfield, denounced this ad:, and demanded an im- 
mediate issue of paper money. At Northampton, Worcester, 
Great Barrington, and Concord armed mobs broke up court 
sittings. The Supreme Court was to sit at Springfield in 
September, and militia was sent to proted: it. There was no 
battle, but the insurgents under Daniel Shays prevented the 
sitting. Further disorders occurred at Worcester and Con- 
cord. At Worcester Shays gathered and drilled over twelve 
hundred recruits, many of them ex-soldiers. Governor 
Bowdoin called out an army of forty-four hundred troops. 

On January 25 Shays, with two thousand men, attacked 
Springfield, hoping to get control of the arsenal. The at- 
tack failed. In the course of the next week Shays's forces 
withdrew to Ludlow, and successively to Amherst, Pelham, 
Prescott, North Dana, and finally to Petersham. At this 
place the state forces came up with them and, after a brief 
battle, scattered the insurgent forces and took Shays and 
a hundred and fifty of his men prisoners. The insur- 
redion came to an end with the defeat, on February 26, 
of the band that plundered Stockbridge and carried off its 
leading citizens as hostages. 




L^ 



PINE tree shillings were the first 
silver coins minted in the colonies. 
Their making brought such affluence 
to the mint master, John Hull, that 
he was able to give his daughter her 
weight in shining coin as her dowry. 
Their fineness and value were never 
questioned. 



New England — Old and New 



47 



Trade, 
Commerce, 
and Shipping 



The leaders of the nadon saw the danger of disinte- 
gration that unlimited states' rights threatened — that the 
troubles vexing the nation were curable only by the crea- 
tion of a stronger national authority. To this period, its 
wranglings and disorders, we owe the adoption of the 
strong, well-balanced Federal Constitution. 

The peace treaty hit New England hard. It ended the 
lucrative trade with the British West Indies. Under the 
Navigation Adl, as construed, New England could ship 
to England only goods produced in the states of which 
the ship's owners were citizens. The carrying trade in 
tobacco and rice from the southern states to England was 
thus closed to New England ships. 

Facing these conditions. New England sought new The East 
avenues of trade, new fields for her ships and sailors. The " '^ ^^ ^ 
profitable commerce of " the East " beckoned, and New 
England keels were soon furrowing the wide expanses of 
the Pacific. In the ports of the Orient — Canton, Shang- 
hai, Nagasaki, Calcutta — Yankee ships and Yankee skip- 
pers became a familiar sight. 

The first Yankee ship in the China trade was the Em- 
press of China. She sailed to Shanghai in 1784, with a 
cargo of lumber, rum, and ginsing, and brought back a 
cargo of tea and silk. Her example was quickly followed 
by many others. In 1787 the increasing volume and im- 
portance of the China trade led to the appointment of 
Major Samuel Shaw, of Boston, as the first United States 
consul to China — linking the young nation to the oldest. 

This pioneer voyage marked the beginning of a new era for 
New England. For the next sixty years the names, Boston 



With China 



4^ New England — Old and New 



and Salem, stood for Yankee trade and Yankee ships — the 
smartest, fastest ships, and the most adventurous traders. 
During the fifties more American ships entered and cleared 
from Canton than of any other nationality. 

A Boston ship, the little Columbia^ was the first Ameri- 
can ship to visit the Pacific coast of the United States and 
open trade with the Indians. Her voyage began on Sep- 
tember 30, 1787, and ended in August, 1790, after she had 
completed the first voyage round the world ever made by 
an American ship. 

With Japan ^ Boston ship, the Franklin^ first carried the American 

flag to Japan, in 1799 — many years previous to Com- 
modore Perry's epoch-making visit of 1853. Numerous 
profitable voyages to the Orient were made in the follow- 
ing years by Boston and Salem ships, where rich cargoes 
of sugar, coffee, and spices were obtained. 

with India xhe Salem ship Atlantic was the first American ship to 

cast anchor at Calcutta and Bombay, in 1789. Another 
vessel, the Peggy^ soon afterward brought the first cargo of 
Bombay cotton into Massachusetts Bay — a forerunner of 
the $26,000,000 in cotton from India and Egypt, which 
entered the port of Boston during the year ending August 
31, 1918. 

To list the famous Boston and Salem ships, their voy- 
ages, cargoes, and profits, from 1784 till after the Civil 
War, would be a formidable task — the ships of Joseph 
Peabody of Salem, who owned and operated eighty-three 
ships during a career of sixty years, and whose payroll lists 
more than seven thousand seamen ; of Elias Hasket Derby, 
of the later merchant princes of Boston and Salem. It 



New England — Old and New 



49 



covers the most prosperous period of American shipping 
— when " old glory " snapped to the breeze in every port 
in the world. 

Speed was always a charadleristic of American sailing 
vessels. Perhaps the fastest of them all was the Flying 
Cloudy which made four trips to California during the rush 
of the " forty-niners," averaging ninety-seven and three- 
quarter days. 

It was not unusual for crack clipper ships to beat the 
early steamers in the trip from Boston to Liverpool. But 
as steamers improved in speed, seaworthiness, and de- 
pendability, the supremacy of the superb Yankee clippers 
declined. The late sixties saw the pradlical end of the era 
to which they belonged. 

Many went under other flags, while others left their bones 
on coral reefs. Some became barges. They had brought 
wealth to America, and carried troops to the Crimea, and 
gold seekers to Australia and to California, where many 
were run ashore and served as hotels and storehouses. 

With the Yankee clipper ships went the American mer- 
cantile marine. For years the American flag was rarely 
seen in foreign ports. Today, as a result of the great war, 
we have a big new fleet of merchant vessels of a combined 
tonnage that exceeds the merchant marine of any other 
nation, with the single exception of the British Empire, 
and even that leadership is challenged. 

New England helped to build it. New England under- 
stands foreign trade. Her ports are situated hundreds of 
miles nearer Europe, Her docks have dire(5t rail con- 
nexion with every part of the nation. In the new age of 



Yankee Ships 



The New Ships 



New England's 
Attitude 



so New England — 0/d and New 

power-driven ships New England will do her part to build 
and maintain the stru6hire and fabric of a great and pros- 
perous American merchant marine. 
Facilities Boston possesses the largest land dry dock in the world, 

with a length at bottom of 1 1 70 feet and a width of 1 1 5 
feet. The national government intends to make it the 
nucleus of the greatest ship-repair plant on the Atlantic. 
Boston already has the largest passenger and freight pier in 
the world. A competent authority states that " there is no 
collection of docks and piers in the world which would 
more readily lend itself to expansion than these Common- 
wealth proje6ls in South Boston." Portland, Maine, claims 
the finest harbor in the world, where an ocean liner can 
steam from her dock to the open sea in thirty minutes 
without the aid of a tug and without making a single right- 
angled turn. 

New England's harbors could shelter the world's fleets. 
They are not congested. Loading facilities are ideal. They 
make port charges small. 







r'HE treaty entered into by Massa- 
soit, sachem of the Wampanoags, 
during Plymouth's first year, was 
faithfully kept for more than half a 
century. Not till "King Philip,^' son 
and successor of Massasoit, went on the 
warpath, did the Indians of Massa- 
chusetts Bay commit any serious depre- 
dations. 




Chapter V 
Industrial 3^w England 

OUT of the chaos of post-revolution days, de- 
^ veloped a steady growth of manufadxires which 
I closely paralleled New England's expansion in 
trade and commerce. As her industrial centers 
grew, agriculture lost its preeminence in New 
England. Today ninety-two per cent of the people of the 
" Old Colony " live in towns. 

Others joined the all-conquering host which settled the 
West, and joined the Atlantic and Pacific with a homo- 
geneous population thoroughly permeated with New Eng- 
land ideals — free institutions, popular education, and 
personal and public probity and integrity. 



A Land 
of Towns 



54 New England — Old and New 

Her People Immigration has swelled the population, but the new- 

comers have largely absorbed the spirit of New England. 
In no part of the nation is there a stronger leaven of straight- 
thinking, law-abiding citizens ready and willing to sacrifice 
all for a principle and an ideal. They still stand by the 
declarations contained in the original Mayflower Compad, 
where we read: "... Having undertaken for the glory of 
> God, ... a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the North- 

ern parts of Virginia ; [we] Do . . . Covenant and Com- 
bine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politick, for our 
better ordering and preservation : ... do enadt, constitute 
and frame such just and equal Laws, ... as shall be thought 
most meet and convenient for the general good of the 
Colony ; unto which we promise all due submission and 
obedience." This sums up New England's attitude towards 
law and order today as it did three centuries ago. 
* Basis of The dignity of labor, Yankee ingenuity and skill, and 

pride in work well done, quite as much as the earlier es- 
tablishment of many industries in New England, have 
enabled this relatively small corner of the nation to earn 
the title, the "Switzerland of America" — the unmatched 
finishing shop of the nation. 

Long-established industries, lumber, textile, leather and 
footwear, machinery, etc., have steadily grown and expanded. 
New industries have developed. Today no section of the 
country manufactures a greater diversity of produd:s re- 
quiring trained skill and craftsmanship than New England. 

Massachusetts easily leads, with over eighty industries, 
each with an annual value of produdls in excess of two 
million dollars. The total value of Massachusetts products 



Industrial 
Preeminence 



New England — Old and New 



SS 



exceeds three billion dollars each year. Forty-fourth state 
in area, she is fifth in number of wage-earners, and sixth in 
population. In the produdlion of cotton goods and foot- 
wear she leads. 

While Massachusetts is the heart of New England, 
each of her neighbors has made progress in arts and manu- 
fadhires that refled: constant advance through sound, con- 
servative management and expansion. 

The bare fadls of the census statisticians suggest the size 
and importance of the other New England states indus- 
trially. Maine has twenty industries that each produce goods 
worth from a million to over twenty million dollars annually. 
Connecticut is the first state in the manufacture of brass and 
bronze produd:s, corsets, firearms, clocks, watches, and sil- 
verware. Vermont is the only rival of Italy in marble pro- 
duction, and first among the states in the manufaChire of 
scales. Rhode Island is fifth in cotton manufacture, and 
nineteenth among the states in the value of produCts. New 
Hampshire has a shoe and cotton industry that ranks high. 

New England employs in excess of 3,000,000 horse 
power, of which but little over a third is represented by 
her water-power developments. The vast water power used 
at Lawrence, Lowell, Manchester, and other points on the 
Merrimac River makes it, perhaps, the most usefial river 
of its size in America. The Connecticut, Housatonic, An- 
droscoggin, Kennebec, the Saco, Stroudwater, Penobscot, 
and Deerfield — all these, and many other New England 
streams contribute to New England's power supply. 

The ratio of water power harnessed, to water power 
available is probably greater in Massachusetts than in any 



A Few Statistics 



Power Used 



Water Power 
Available 



56 



New England — Old and New 



Some New 
England 
Industries — 
Textiles 



of its neighbors; but in Massachusetts considerable devel- 
opments are still possible. In Maine, New Hampshire, 
and Vermont large unit development is feasible at several 
points, while innumerable sites for economically developing 
from fifty to a few hundred horse power exist. 

Maine, although now third among the states in devel- 
oped water powers — over 343,000 horse power — is re- 
garded by competent authorities as an unusually favorable 
field for expansion, while the streams and lakes of Vermont 
and New Hampshire, when completely harnessed, will pro- 
vide big additional contributions to New England's power 
for industrial purposes. 

Abundant power, adaptable and skilled labor, nearness to 
the greatest centers of population, cheap transportation by 
sea or rail — these are faftors that have enabled New Eng- 
land industry to thrive and grow. Today New England 
leads the nation in the manufadhire of many necessities and 
luxuries — produds that are made at lower cost and better 
in New England than elsewhere in America. 

The textile industry ranks next after iron and steel as a 
national industry. In New England it absorbs more capital 
and employs more labor than any other. New England 
textile produdion equals that of all other sedions of the 
country combined, exclusive of manufactures of flax, hemp, 
and jute. Capital investment exceeds a billion and a quar- 
ter dollars. Its annual wage payments are approximately a 
hundred and forty-one millions. 

New England owes this preeminence in textile manu- 
facture to inventiveness, as well as to natural advantages and 
the skill of her workers. At Waltham the first successful 




CiALEM in 1800 — the beginnings 
O of the American Merchant Marine. 
From then until j86o. New England 
led the way upon the sea. 



New England — Old and New 



Boots, Shoes, 
Leather 



Machinery and 
the Metal 
Industries 



power loom was set up. " Not a yard of fancy wool fabric 
had ever been woven by the power loom in any country, 
till done by William Crompton at the Middlesex Mills, 
Lowell in 1840," says Samuel Lawrence. 

Second in importance to textiles comes the great tanning, 
leather, and boot and shoe industry. New England pro- 
duces more than half the shoes manufadaired in the United 
States. Boston is leather headquarters. 

About a thousand tanneries, shoe fadories, and plants 
making lasts and other collateral products, do an annual 
business of four hundred million dollars. A hundred lead- 
ing communities in New England share in this industry. 
They include Brockton, Lynn, Haverhill, Boston, Marl- 
boro, Manchester, Nashua, Auburn, and many other 
thriving New England towns and cities. 

As in textiles, the perfeding of shoe machinery and fac- 
tory organization took place in New England. Her shoe 
machines lead the world. 

Brains have always been a big fadlor in the success of 
New England's manufadures. Her machine and metal 
industries are no exception. While the pradlical monopoly 
of New England in the engine industry has been ended by 
the establishment of these industries nearer to the supplies 
of coal and iron, New England is honeycombed with es- 
tablishments for making tools of precision, metal-working 
machinery, cutlery, firearms, clocks and watches, table sil- 
ver and ornaments, balances that will weigh a hair and 
scales that will weigh an elephant, organs, pianos, phono- 
graphs, eledrical machinery — to list a few of New Eng- 
land's diverse industries. 



New England — Old and New 



S9 



New England has always been an important fadlor in the 
lumber industry — ever since the first shipment in the 
Fortune. There are still vast wooded areas — 2,500,000 
acres in Maine alone — that annually supply millions of 
feet of lumber ; forests, which for over three hundred years 
have been an important source of wealth, that will continue 
to be produ6tive for generations. 

Side by side with lumber manufactures has grown up 
its great complementary industry, wood pulp and paper. 
Here again we find New England the unchallenged leader. 
Her mills produce the fine bank-note paper that is used 
for United States currency, bond papers, fine writing 
papers, the paper used by the metropolitan dailies and the 
farmers' weeklies, the papers most extensively used in book 
printing and for magazines. 

While New England boasts no great deposits of coal, 
iron, copper, or other minerals largely used in the arts of 
industry, she easily leads in the production of ornamental 
and building stone. New Hampshire is well called the 
granite state ; and Vermont annually quarries and finishes 
more high-quality marble than any state in the nation, 
or than any foreign country. Massachusetts, Maine, and 
Conned:icut also have valuable stone industries. New Eng- 
land has in round numbers nine hundred quarry and stone- 
working establishments with an annual output of products 
of approximately fifty million dollars. 

In the realm of table delicacies, sweet corn and potatoes 
from Maine, canned and fresh fish produds from Gloucester, 
cranberries from Cape Cod, maple syrup from Vermont, 
apples, pears, the full-flavored hubbard squash have made 



Lumber 
and Paper 



New England 
Quarries 



Food Products 



6o 



New England — Old and New 



Screens and 
Turret Lathes 
and Scales 



Dyes, Clothes, 
Pipe Organs 



Cottons, 

Plushes, Tools, 
Shoe Machinery 



New England famous for wholesome, old-fashioned food. 
The fertility of large areas of New England has never 
been generally appreciated. The census reports show that 
for corn, oats, rye, and wheat only three states report a 
larger yield per acre than Vermont. The potato crop of 
Aroostook County, in Maine, amounting to approximately 
twenty-five million bushels annually, is an indication of the 
agricultural possibilities of many distrifts in New England. 

In Vermont, Winooski produces more wire screens for 
doors and windows than any other village or city in the 
world. Springfield leads the world in the development of 
the modern turret lathe, and manufactures the bulk of the 
world's best lathes. St. Johnsbury and Rutland make 
more than half of the scales for the nation. 

The largest establishment in the world manufacturing 
package dyes and butter color is found in Burlington, 
Vermont, which also possesses the largest establishment 
making children's washable play clothes. At Brattleboro 
is the greatest pipe-organ plant in the United States. 

Cotton goods of various weaves and qualities have made 
Manchester, New Hampshire, with the largest cotton mill 
in America, Lowell and Fall River, both in Massachusetts, 
famous. The little town of Sanford, Maine, produces the 
well-known palm-beach cloth. In Massachusetts, Worces- 
ter stands for metal-working machines and tools ; Gardiner 
for well-made chairs ; Athol for tools of precision ; and 
Beverly for shoe machinery. 

The list is interminable. In full, it suggests a syllabus 
of modern industry and furnishes a convincing background 
for the tradition of New England skill and versatility. 



New England — Old and New 



6i 



Industries which migrated westward to be nearer sources ^^'^ of Grovrth 
of raw materials have gravitated back to New England, the 
great pool of adaptable skill, where work is done well and 
at low cost. This suggests why the hides of the West are 
sent to New England to be turned into shoes; the cotton 
of the world to be converted into blankets, sheets, and 
ginghams ; and wool from everywhere to become cloths, 
felts, and carpets. 

Every month sees new industries taking root in New Prosperity 
England. Every month new departments and extensions 
to old established institutions are added. New England, 
however, is not crowded. There are innumerable favorable 
sites for new enterprises, and an adequate supply of New 
England quality workmen. New England has never been 
more prosperous, never more promising as a field for 
industrial development. 

These are but a few of the industries that have made 
New England a big, important fadtor in the nation's eco- 
nomic stru6lure — that have swelled the amount of ex- 
change through the Boston Clearing House till it is fourth 
in volume for the nation, exceeded only by New York, 
Chicago, and Philadelphia. 

Captain John Smith said of New England : " Of all the 
parts of the world I have yet seen not inhabited, I would 
rather live here than anywhere." As a vacation land New 
England is justly famous — Whittier's hundred-harbored 
Maine ; the White Hills of New Hampshire dominated 
by the towering spire of Mount Washington, and glori- 
ously restful Green Mountains of Vermont; the Berk- 
shires of Massachusetts that have been compared with the 



Finance 



What New 
England Offers 



62 



New England — Old and New 



Climate and Soil 



Transportation 
and Power 



Her Bright 
Future 



far-famed lake distrid; of England ; the fruitful Connedicut 
Valley ; the sands of Nantucket and Cape Cod — who that 
knows New England and does not love her, " her rocks 
and rills, her woods and templed hills "? 

New England invites and welcomes visitors. Come to 
New England and enjoy her invigorating climate, where 
summer is always comfortable and winter is bracing. 

Her soil, over large areas, possesses richness and fertility 
which yield potatoes, sweet corn, apples, and all the edible 
grains in greater volume per acre than many a sedlion of 
the country that is regarded as an agricultural paradise. 

Her internal transportation lines are well developed. 
Her harbors are hundreds of miles nearer Europe than 
any others, and they could shelter the world's fleets. 

There is ample power in her rivers and streams — power 
that can be economically developed — that makes her still 
the land of promise for industries that need cheap power. 

Her people are aggressive, settled in habits of thrift and 
industry, and are anxious to realize the glorious future of 
New England — to make her the land of promise fulfilled. 



Issued to commemorate the three hundredth anniversary 
of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth^ Massachu- 
setts, and the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of 
the Old Colony Trust Company, Boston. « Printed 
by The University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 



tt^^ 



.\^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



iiiii mil mil Mill mil nil III 
014 042 442 



